Falling Skies

Finished series with my kids (2023). As good or better than anything on TV / streaming now. The changes brought after the first two seasons helped advance the story and characters. Very entertaining. Special effects are good enough if not spectacular. Successfully deals with the effects of insurgence warfare on people. The villains turn out to be more complex and interesting as the show progressed though there are no characters really from that side. Starting with third season treats the female characters much better without being obvious about it. Has really aged well. You can watch with your kids/teenagers without worrying about inappropriate content. Worth watching again.

I disagree with the negative comments about the show. This show is about family and the lengths that one man will go to provide and protect his family. It just happens to be set to the backdrop of an alien invasion and global armageddon.

There are a few points in which the writing/editing seems a bit choppy and confusing, specifically at season changes three to four and four to five. In both instances a perceptive viewer will catch up. The show flows much better watching it without commercials and in three hour segments than it did on its original airing on TNT. The commercials and episodic gaps made tough to watch. I recommend rewatching it on HBO without commercials.

In closing, it is a fun show with good baseline values shared by very flawed people whom are facing the everyday challenge of making difficult choices that others are unwilling or unable to make.

The first few seasons were great - I would rate them 8/10, but my goodness is it let down by most of season 4 and season 5.

Season 5 is just painful to watch. The plot lines they've concocted feels so disjointed from the first 3 seasons and gives the show a completely different vibe. I think the problem is they tried so hard to hold on to the original cast that they came up with these wacky subplots to keep them relevant.

It just doesn't work and make any sense. And don't get me started on Popes character development - totally thrown out the window. Ended up disliking pretty much all of the main characters in the end. A shame.

Falling Skies is a show that takes places in the wake of an alien attack the has changed the world. It follows groups of survivors as they fight back against these aliens. They're led by former Boston history professor Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) and his three sons. They join another group that called themselves the 2nd Massachusetts and their led by commander Weaver (Will Patton). Those two then lead a the resistance against the aliens as they plan a series of attacks on them. If you like sci-fi shows about aliens invading earth that has plenty of action, drama, mystery and intensity then Falling Skies is for you. Is it the best sci-fi show ever? No, but it's still pretty good and keeps you engaged throughout its entire series run.

Some movies and shows are a mystery to me. Why are they appreciated and loved and high rated by a community which claims to have high standards and no easy 'suspension of disbelief' ? OK, maybe I have too high expectations from that community, namely the SF-lovers. I am at least one, but luckily no part of a community.

I had no high expectations from 'Falling Skies', when it started, but they were lowered in an instant after watching the first episode, as I had to realize, that this show is not about Aliens, Science Fiction, or war, or even surviving the ultimate invasion, but about the American Dream, which is a dream since it isn't allowed any longer to be lived out: Adults and teens (male only in the past, but now also female) running around in then open, wavering and shooting all kinds of guns in a so-called situation of self-defense.

That means complete freedom, no more fences, no more tax payments, no more traffic rules. A world full of rednecks, even some with academic degrees (at least those who can yield a gun fast enough), more or less united against the common enemy, some more or less willfully collaborating.

And so it stayed, for the full first season, the full second season, the full third season, and the full fourth season. That is continuity, I said to me, at least.

Maybe some people who get permanently bashed at work can come home, watch this show and go to sleep thinking about their lead role against foreign invaders like...everyone, in case of an invasion, of course.

It doesn't do the show any good that Steven Spielberg is involved. On the contrary, it seems that a work of Spielberg today does mostly look for satisfying the smallest common denominator of the biggest number of viewers. There he failed with 'Terranova', which was one step above 'Falling Skies', but at least delivered some good CGI, some interesting theories and strange characters.

Which 'Falling Skies' doesn't. It is a straight-to-beer-can delivery and grabs random pieces from the third-class storytelling wasteland of pulp magazine, that should never see the light of the telly in order to store the cockroaches where they belong.

After unbelievable four seasons, that 80ies-like torture of an SF show will hopefully come to an end with the final 5th season. Oh, it's a shame, many will cry, there would be so much more to tell....

The only satisfaction that came to me is the idea that the story of the show has some parallelism with the US Iraq adventure. There, they devastated the country, too, tried to install a submissive government, which failed, too. Conversion of the society to western standards failed also. Because at gunpoint, such things usually do not work out very well. Which Israel could have told them long ago (if she would have had realized that, eventually).

However, the season 4 finale was actually so massively ridiculous, predictable and stupid, I thought I would have maybe completely missed the subtle humor (or horror) of all four seasons. Am I a damn idiot, I asked myself ? Yes, I answered, it was idiotic alone to watch this show, hoping it would improve a bit in time.